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Stories /^Bedtime 


By AbbiePhillipsWevlker 


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COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 





































































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Told by Ihe • • 

Stories /orBediime 



ByAbbie Phillips WaJker* * • 

KCustrated by Rhoda. C. Clmse •• 
Harper <3 Brothers, Publishers 


Told by the Sandman 


V 

Copyright, 1916, by Harper & Brothers 
Printed in the United States of America 
Published September, 1916 

H-Q 


©CI.A437628 £ 


TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER 

Frances Congdon Phillips 

I LOVINGLY DEDICATE THIS LITTLE BOOK 

































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CONTENTS 


PAGE 

How the Pussy-willow Grew 3 

The Enchanted Tree . 8 

Ingenious Mr. Mouse 13 

The Grumpies 17 

The Miser and the Fairy 21 

Edward’s Visit to the Fish 25 

Two Brave Boys 30 

What the Sparrow Saw 34 

The Land of “I Forgot” 39 

The Animals and the Mirror 43 

Discontented Dewdrop 49 

Towser 53 

A Knotty Subject 56 

Dorothy’s Kimono 59 

Why the Trees Bend 63 

The Color Festivals 67 

How the Water-lilies Grew 70 

The Fairies’ Disguise 74 

How the Daisy Got Her Yellow Eye . . . i . . 78 

The Magic Gloves 80 

How the Pansies Got Their Dresses 85 

Inquisitive Katie 88 

The Fisherman and the Fish 94 




TOLD BY THE 
SANDMAN 
















































































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HOW THE PUSSY-WILLOW GREW 

O NE night the fairy Queen had all her fairies 
gathered around her. She was telling them how 
thankful they should be that they were happy and 
that they had such a beautiful world to live in. 

“And this is the reason for your happiness,” she 
explained. “You do good and bring happiness to 
others and are always busy. If you did not work and 
had nothing to do but look around for amusement 
you would soon become restless and dissatisfied and 
long for things that others have. But, of course, 
fairies never long for things that mortals have, so all 
this talk is quite needless.” 

When the Queen finished speaking she saw one 
little fairy looked very grave and did not smile and 
dance about with the others. 

This fairy was called Dewdrop, because it was her 
duty every morning just before sunrise to gather 


4 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


drops from the river and put them on all the flowers, 
and she was usually the gayest of the fairies, so the 
Queen called to her and asked: 

“What makes you so sad, my Dewdrop? Is there 
not plenty of water in the river-beds for your beautiful 
flowers?” 

“Oh yes, my Queen,” answered Dewdrop. “There 
are plenty of drops for my flowers, but I am unhappy 
because of something I want and I know I cannot 
have.” 

“Tell me about it,” said the wise Queen. “Perhaps 
I can help you,” and she drew Dewdrop close to her 
side and listened to her story. 

“One morning when the south wind and gray cloud 
brought rain to my beautiful flowers,” Dewdrop be- 
gan, “I did not have any work to do, so I sat under 
a big leaf and watched the rain falling. I was in a 
garden, and a house stood near. By and by a 
little girl came out and called, ‘Kitty, kitty,’ and the 
dearest little kitten came running up the path, me- 
owing and swinging its tail. The little girl rolled a 
spool across the porch and the kitten chased it. Then 
it jumped through her clasped hands, and chased its 
tail, and then it ran up the little girl’s dress to her 
shoulder and sat there, with its head nestled in her 
neck.” 

“But why should this make you so sad, my Dew- 
drop?” asked the Queen. 

“Tell her, Dewdrop,” said one of the other fairies, 


HOW THE PUSSY-WILLOW GREW 


5 


for all of them had gathered around while Dewdrop 
was talking. 

“Yes, tell the Queen,” said another. 

“You see, dear Queen, we all want a kitten to play 
with,” said Dewdrop, “and every time one of us sees 
a little girl with a kitten we are unhappy.” 

The Queen looked very grave, for never before 
had her fairies wanted anything a mortal possessed, 
but she did not scold. 

After waiting a few minutes the Queen spoke: “I 
will not promise you anything,” she said, “but meet 
me to-morrow night down by the river when the 
clock strikes the last stroke of twelve, and if the moon 
is shining, I may have something for you.” 

“Oh, you dear, good Queen!” cried all the fairies 
at once. “It will be something nice, we know.” 

“Perhaps,” answered the Queen, smiling. “Now 
scamper away, every one of you, and do your work 
with smiling faces.” 

The next night the moon was shining, and the Queen 
could be seen — that is, if one had fairy eyes — flitting 
along the banks of the river, back and forth, back and 
forth, flying in there and out here, and as busy as two 
little fairies could have been on their busiest night. 

“There!” she exclaimed, after a while, “I think 
there will be enough for each to have one.” Then she 
stepped into her chariot and waited. 

The last tone of the last stroke of the mid- 
night hour was dying away when the fairies ap- 


6 TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 

peared by the river and looked about for their 
Queen. 

“There she is,” said one, catching sight of the 
shining chariot under a bush. 

“What is it you have for us?” they all asked, 
running to the Queen. 

The Queen led them nearer the bank of the river 
and showed them slender brown bushes with tiny 
gray tufts, soft and slick-looking. 

“But what are they?” asked the fairies. 

“Stroke them and see,” said the Queen. 

Each little fairy touched a soft, gray tuft with her 
tiny finger. “Me-ow, me-ow,” came softly from each 
tiny gray tuft, and then the gray tuft stretched out 
and a tiny head appeared, and a tail and four little 
paws could be seen. 

“Oh! Oh! The darlings!” cried all the fairies. 
“They are our kittens, our dear little pussy-cats we 
had wished for so long.” 

Each little gray pussy sat up and looked at her 
mistress, and then one fairy rolled a grain of sand (of 
course they looked very large to a fairy kitten), and 
all the little gray pussies scampered down from the 
bushes and did all the tricks for the fairies that mortal 
kittens do for their little mistresses. 

When the first streak of light showed in the sky 
all the gray pussies scrambled back to the bushes, 
curled up, and went to sleep, and there they sleep 
every night until the last tone of the last stroke of the 


HOW THE PUSSY-WILLOW GREW 


7 


midnight hour dies away, and then if you can see with 
fairy eyes you will see each little gray mite stretch out 
and sit up and me-ow for her little fairy mistress to 
come and play with her. 

We call them pussy-willow bushes, but the fairies 
call them their little gray kittens. 


2 



THE ENCHANTED TREE 
NCE upon a time there lived a King who had a 



W tree which bore beautiful green apples. They 
were very large, but they were also so hard that they 
could not be eaten. 

“ If those apples were fit to be eaten,” a friend told 
the King one day, “you would have the most valuable 
apple-tree in the world.” 

This made the King more anxious than before to 
have the tree bear fruit that could be eaten, so he 
sent word by his servants all over the country that 
he would give to the man who would make the tree 
bear good fruit his daughter’s hand in marriage, but 
the fruit must be as large and as green as it was 
then. 

Men came from far and near — old men, young men, 
short men, tall men — but they could not make the 
tree bring forth fruit that could be eaten. 


THE ENCHANTED TREE 


9 


The fruit grew softer, but when one tried to eat 
it he found it so bitter that he could not swallow it. 

At the edge of the forest near the King’s castle 
lived a poor old woman and her daughter. The 
daughter’s name was Hester, and she had a wonderful 
garden, which she cared for and sold the vegetables 
at the markets in the city. This was all that sup- 
ported Hester and her old mother. 

By the side of the little cottage where they lived 
grew a beautiful apple-tree. The fruit was large and 
very juicy, and the color of the apples was red. 

An old witch had touched the tree with her cane 
one day, because Hester had helped her with her 
bundle of fagots, and as she touched it she said: 

“Bear the best and the largest of your kind.” 

When Hester heard that the King had offered his 
daughter as a reward to the one who made his apple- 
tree to bring good fruit, she said to her mother, with a 
laugh : 

“If only the King’s daughter were a son and his 
tree a red-apple tree, I might win the prize.” 

“How could you do that?” asked her mother. 
“You could not make your apples to grow on his 
tree.” 

“No,” answered Hester, “but I could tie my apples 
on his tree. He did not say how many seasons they 
must grow. Then I could marry the prince and you 
and I could live in plenty.” 

After all the men had tried and could not make the 


IO 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


apples good, Hester was thinking about it one night, 
and also wondering what would become of her mother 
and herself that winter, when a thought came to her. 

“I will go to the old witch,” she said, and when her 
mother was fast asleep she put on a suit of peasant’s 
clothes which had belonged to her father, and went 
into the woods to the hut where the witch lived. 

“Mother witch,” she said, “you made the tree be- 
side Hester’s cottage to grow juicy fruit, the best in 
the land. Teach me, I beg of you, the way to make 
the tree in the King’s garden bring forth fruit, that 
I may wed the King’s daughter and live in comfort.” 

“You look like a good boy,” said the witch, “and 
I will help you. Take this powder and when the 
clock strikes the hour of midnight sprinkle it around 
the trunk of the green-apple tree.” 

Hester thanked her and hurried away, but she 
did not know that the old witch knew her; but she 
did, and wondered what she would do when the King 
discovered that she was a girl and could not wed his 
daughter. 

Hester hurried to the castle, and when the clock 
struck twelve she did as the witch told her. The 
next morning she went to the King and said: 

“Your Majesty, if you will taste the apples growing 
on your tree I am sure you will find them the best in 
the world.” 

The King called his servants and went to the tree. 
There he found the apples even larger than before, 


THE ENCHANTED TREE 


ii 


and when they picked them and gave them to the 
King, he tasted and found them good. 

“You shall wed my daughter,” said the King. 
“Come with me.” And he led Hester into the castle. 
When the Princess saw Hester she fell in love with 
the handsome youth, for Hester looked like a beauti- 
ful boy in her disguise. 

“Prepare for the wedding,” said the King, “and 
invite all the people around the country to attend.” 

Hester was dressed in a suit of green velvet trimmed 
with gold lace, and she looked handsomer than be- 
fore. She took good care that her long, black curls 
were tucked well under her cap, and she asked to be 
allowed to wear her hat at all times, because it was 
a strange fancy of hers, or his, that good luck would 
leave her if she uncovered her head. 

All went well until the day of the wedding, when 
the Princess said: “Your luck will change now, my 
dear Prince. Do remove your hat, and let me be the 
one to remove it.” 

As she spoke she lifted the hat and stepped back, 
and down fell the black curls. The Princess dropped 
the hat and screamed, and that brought the King and 
all the household. There stood poor Hester, her face 
covered with blushes. 

“I was so poor,” she said, “and the winter was 
coming. I thought only of my poor old mother and 
that she would be kept from starving. I am sorry 
if I have done any harm.” 


12 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


The Princess ran to her and put her arms around 
her. “You have not harmed any one, ’ ’ she said, ‘ ‘ and 
instead of a wedding there will be a feast in honor 
of my new sister, for I cannot live without you. I 
have grown to love you so much.” 

The King granted every wish his daughter had 
ever made, and he did not oppose this, so Hester and 
the Princess drove in a handsome coach drawn by 
two white horses to Hester’s home and brought her 
mother back to the castle, where they all lived in 
peace and plenty the rest of their lives. 



INGENIOUS MR. MOUSE 

W HAT do you think has happened?” asked 
Mr. Mouse, running into his hole, where 
Mrs. Mouse sat rocking to sleep the five little mice. 
“I cannot think,” she said. “Do tell me.” 

“The family have moved out,” said Mr. Mouse, 
“and there isn’t a thing left in the house to eat but 
some pieces of cheese.” 

“Pieces of cheese!” said Mrs. Mouse. “Well, 
I should think that was good enough for any one.” 

“So it is,” said Mr. Mouse, “but where do you 
think they left them?” 

“ I never could guess,” said Mrs. Mouse. 

“On a trap — one of the break-your-back kind.” 
“Squeak! Squeak!” said Mrs. Mouse. “What 
will we do? The children are so small I just hate to 
move, but I suppose we must, or starve.” 

“I have an idea,” said Mr. Mouse, “and I think 


14 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


you can help me. Ther.e are several traps and each 
one has on it the nicest piece of cheese you ever saw. 
I was very much tempted to try for a piece.” 

“Squeak! Squeak!” said Mrs. Mouse, in alarm. 
“You wouldn’t risk your life that way, my dear. 
Think of me and these five small children,” and she 
looked into the cradle as she spoke. “Aren’t they 
just dear?” she asked, with motherly pride. “But 
what about that cheese?” she asked, after a minute. 

“I was thinking,” said Mr. Mouse, “it really is 
too bad to lose so much nice cheese, and besides 
that, as you say, the children are so small it will be 
quite an undertaking to get them safely to another 
place. If we could get all of that cheese it would last 
us a long time, and by the time we have eaten it 
perhaps some one will move into the house.” 

“I hope the cook will be as careless as the last,” 
said Mrs. Mouse. “Didn’t we have good things to 
eat?” 

“When the children are asleep you come with me,” 
said Mr. Mouse. 

“I think they are asleep now,” replied his wife, 
and both of them ran out of the hole. They ran 
through all the rooms. They were quite deserted. 

“They have gone only for the winter,” said Mrs. 
Mouse. “The furniture is still here.” 

“I never thought of that,” said Mr. Mouse. “I 
do believe we can live on this cheese until they 
return.” 


INGENIOUS MR. MOUSE 


i5 


“But how will we get it without being caught in 
the trap?” asked Mrs. Mouse, keeping at a safe 
distance from the awful-looking boards. 

“You wait and see,” said Mr. Mouse. 

In a few minutes he returned with a piece of string. 
“There are seven traps,” he said, gnawing at the 
twine with his sharp teeth. When he had seven 
pieces he gave an end of one piece to Mrs. Mouse 
and told her to take it in her mouth. “Now I will 
take the other end in my mouth,” he said, “and we 
will walk on either side of the trap, drawing the string 
over the cheese, which will spring the trap, and then 
we will get the cheese without any trouble.” 

“You are certainly the smartest mouse that ever 
lived,” said Mrs. Mouse, looking at Mr. Mouse very 
lovingly, and off they scampered. 

Snap! went the first trap; Mrs. Mouse jumped, 
but no one was hurt, and there was the piece of 
cheese to be had for the taking. 

When all the traps were sprung Mrs. Mouse said: 
“We have not been in the cellar.” They ran down 
the stairs and there were two more traps. 

“I’ll get some more string,” said Mr. Mouse, and 
in a few minutes there were two more pieces of 
cheese added to their store. 

Mrs. Mouse took one piece in her mouth and Mr. 
Mouse the other, and carried them up-stairs, for they 
lived between the first and second floors and had an 
entrance on both. “No doubt when this is gone,” 


16 TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 

said Mrs. Mouse, as they took the last piece into 
their hole, “we can find some old kid gloves or shoes 
that will keep us in food until the family get home, 
and won’t they be surprised to find us here, well and 
happy?” 

“I think they will,” said Mr. Mouse, “but they 
will be more surprised when they find only string 
in the traps and the cheese gone.” 





THE GRUMPIES 

N ETTIE was a little girl, but she was old enough 
to help her mother with the dishes, and dust, 
and do many things that would help her when she 
was tired, or help her so she would not get tired; but 
Nettie was a shirk, and did not help if she could 
manage to escape. 

One day her father said, “Nettie, you are to help 
your mother to-day; she has a great deal to do, so 
you must take the baby in his carriage and care for 
him this morning, and this afternoon you can play.” 

“Oh dear, it is Saturday, and I want to play,” 
grumbled Nettie, scowling and fussing, as naughty 
girls do sometimes. 

“I am afraid you will be caught by the Grumpies, 
some day,” said her father. “You shirk and leave so 
much for your mother to do. You leave your books 
on the floor, your hat on a chair, and your mother 



i8 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


has to pick them up. I want you to be a helper to 
your mother, and not a grumpy little girl.” 

But Nettie did not feel like helping that day. She 
had a book she wanted to read, so she did a very 
wicked thing. 

Right after breakfast, as soon as her father was 
out of the house, she began to complain that her. 
head ached and she was sick, so sick she could not 
sit up. 

So Nettie went to her room and got into her bed. 
When she was sure her mother was busy and would 
not come in her room, she took her book from under 
her pillow and began to read. She read a long time. 
Nettie was never sure how long, or when it happened, 
but all at once she felt a tug at her book, and a 
voice said: 

“Hello, Nettie! So you are a Grumpie, like us, 
are you? Well, we have come to take you with us.” 

Nettie looked, and all around her were the queerest- 
looking little creatures, with long, pointed heads, and 
right on the very top they had a few spears of hair, 
which dropped over their eyes. 

Before Nettie could say a word she was carried off 
by these little creatures, who seemed only to have to 
say a thing, and it was done. 

Nettie found herself, in a short time, in a most 
untidy room with these strange creatures running all 
about. 

One little Grumpie, who seemed to be the spokes- 


THE GRUMPIES 


19 


man, said to Nettie: “When a new member joins the 
Grumpies she has to do certain things before she 
can really belong, as none of us ever work when we 
have a new member. She has to work for a while, 
for that is what we are for — to make work, and 
never do any ourselves.” 

“But I do not want to belong to the Grumpies,” 
said Nettie. 

“Oh yes, you do!” replied the spokesman. “You 
joined this morning when you left the work for your 
mother and went to bed. You are one of us now.” 

“But I won’t be one of you,” said Nettie. “I 
wouldn’t look like you for anything. What makes 
your bodies so small?” 

“ Oh, we do nothing to make them grow, and we have 
no hearts at all; only naughty thoughts, and they can 
be put in a very small space and still be very bad.” 

“Now, comrades, let the fun begin,” called the 
spokesman to the other Grumpies. 

Nettie did not see where they came from, but these 
Grumpies suddenly had books in their hands, and 
hats, and coats, and smudgy fingers, and scissors, 
with which they cut paper into little pieces and scat- 
tered all about the floor; the hats they threw on the 
floor, too, and the coats on chairs; with the smudgy 
fingers they touched the white paint, and the books 
joined the hats arid bits of paper. 

Their dresses were of little checked ginghams, and 
these they soon had soiled. 


20 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


“Now, Nettie, you must pick up the things, and 
make the room tidy, and wash our dresses, and iron 
them, and scrub our hands,” said the spokesman. 

“ I think you are a very untidy lot of creatures, and 
a very thoughtless crowd as well. You make a lot 
of work for me to do, and do nothing yourselves. I 
am not going to do a thing,” said Nettie. 

“Spoken like a true Grumpie,” said the spokesman. 
“But you will have to do this work this time, and 
after you have done it you are a Grumpie in reality, 
and will never have to work again.” 

“But I told you I did not want to look like you. 
You are a bad, shirking, troublesome lot, and I do 
not want anything to do with you.” 

“Make her,” said the spokesman, and all the 
Grumpies rushed at Nettie like a whirlwind. 

“Bang!” something sounded, and Nettie jumped. 
Her book was on the floor by her bed. She had 
fallen asleep and dropped it. 

“I have been a selfish girl and a Grumpie, even if 
I do not look like them,” said Nettie, getting out of 
bed. “I’ll go right out and get the baby and his 
bottle, and put him to bed, and I’ll show those old 
Grumpies I do not want to join them after this.” 



THE MISER AND THE FAIRY 
NCE upon a time there lived a man who was 



V-/ very fond of gold. He sold everything he had 
for gold, so that he and his little daughter had 
to live in a hut in the woods. He kept his gold 
in a hole in the floor, and every night he would 
take it out and count it. At last he became such 
a miser that he almost starved himself, but he 
loved his little daughter very dearly and would buy 
food for her. 

One night when he was counting his gold and 
wishing he had more, a little fairy came out of the 
fireplace and stood beside him. 

“So you want more gold? ” she said. 

“Yes, yes,” the old miser replied. “Can you tell 
me how to get it?” 

“Are you sure you would be happy with all the 
gold you wanted?” 


22 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


“What would there be to wish for,” the miser re- 
plied, “if I had all the gold I wanted?” 

“Oh, many things,” said the fairy. “There are 
many things that gold cannot buy; you cannot buy 
happiness with it.” 

“But I would be happy if I had all the gold I 
wanted.” 

“Very well,” replied the fairy. “I will give you 
a chance to try it. How would you like to have the 
golden touch, so that everything you touched turned 
to gold?” 

The old miser laughed with delight. “Oh!” he 
said, “good fairy, give me the power to make every- 
thing I touch turn to gold, and I will never wish 
for anything again.” 

“You shall have your wish,” said the fairy. 
“To-morrow morning at sunrise your power will 
begin.” 

The old miser could not sleep, so eager was he to 
test the power, and when the sun rose the first thing 
he touched was the table; then he touched his little 
daughter’s bowl and spoon, and they became bright 
gold. He thought this would please her, but when 
she saw it she cried, because she liked to look at the 
pictures on the bowl. 

Then he changed everything in the house to gold, 
the bed and coverings, which made them so heavy 
they could not be used. He went to the door, and 
saw a rose-bush of which his daughter was very fond, 


THE MISER AND THE FAIRY 


23 


and he touched that, thinking she would be pleased 
with the golden rose. 

Then he went to his breakfast, but when he put 
the food to his mouth it turned to gold and he could 
not swallow it. This frightened him, and just then 
his little daughter came to him, crying because her 
pretty rose-bush had lost its sweetness, and he put 
his arm around her, to comfort her, and she turned 
to gold, with tears on her cheeks, just as they had 
fallen, but all gold. 

When the old miser saw what he had done he cried 
out, in agony: “My little girl, come back to me; you 
are better than all the gold.” But she stood before 
him, a golden image, with the little gold tears on 
her cheeks. 

The poor miser now saw that gold did not bring 
him happiness. He had lost his little girl, and, as all 
the food turned to gold, he would soon starve. 

That night he sat weeping before the golden image 
of his daughter, when the fairy appeared again. “I 
suppose you are quite happy,” she said. 

“Give back my daughter,” sobbed the old man. 
“I cannot be happy without her.” 

“But you have all the gold you want,” said the 
fairy; “you said you would be happy if you had 
that.” 

“No! no!” he cried. “Take the gold and give my 
daughter back to me. I can never be happy without 

her.” 

3 


24 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


“Well,” said the fairy, “if you are convinced that 
gold cannot buy happiness, I will take away your 
golden touch, but you must promise to spend gen- 
erously the money you have saved, and lead a 
better life.” 

The miser promised, and the fairy touched the 
golden image and it became a little girl again. Her 
father clasped her in his arms and told her she was 
worth more to him than all the gold in the world, 
and they moved into a nice house ; he bought for her 
all the pretty things a little girl could want, and they 
lived happily ever after, for he spent his wealth in 
making other people happy. 



EDWARD’S VISIT TO THE FISH 

E DWARD was very fond of fishing, and one day 
while he was walking by the river he saw a large 
number of fish swimming about. He ran home for 
his fishing-pole and then sat on the bank waiting for 
the fish to bite. But the fish were not to be caught 
that day, and it was a long time before Edward felt 
a tug at his line. Then he sat up very straight, for 
the line pulled so hard it drew him toward the river. 

“I wonder what I have caught?” said Edward, 
pulling with all his strength, but the line pulled him 
into the river, and under he went. 

The next thing that he knew he was at the bottom 
of the ocean, and on the end of his line were a row of 
fish pulling at it, but not on the hook. They had 
taken the line in their mouths and brought him to 
the bottom of the ocean. 


26 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


“Ha! Ha!” they laughed. “We caught you this 
time, didn’t we?” And they ran toward him and 
pricked him with their fins. 

Edward pushed them away and asked why they 
drew him under the water. 

“We wanted to see how you looked,” they told 
him, “and then we thought you should know how it 
felt to be taken from your home on land and brought 
to our watery home.” 

“I cannot see what good it will do you to have me 
here,” said Edward. “You cannot eat me, and that 
is the reason we fish — you are good to eat.” 

“Oh, can’t we eat you?” said one fish, who was 
larger than the rest. “We have fish large enough to 
swallow you with one mouthful.” 

Edward began to wonder if that were true, 
when he saw a large swordfish join the others, 
and then a shark came along, and in a few min- 
utes there were dozens of fish, large and small, 
around him in a circle. 

“What shall we do with this boy?” asked a blue- 
fish. “He would catch us with a hook, and then eat 
us, if he could.” 

“Make him tell a story,” said a mackerel. “If he 
tells a good one we will let him go home, and if it is 
not interesting to us, we’ll keep him here.” 

“You sit on that rock,” said the swordfish, pointing 
to a large rock with his sword. And then they gath- 
ered around Edward, who was trying very hard to 


EDWARD’S VISIT TO THE FISH 


27 


think of a story that fish would like, but all he could 
tell them was the story of 

Hey, diddle, diddle, 

The cat and the fiddle, 

The cow jumped over the moon. 

The little dog laughed to see the sport, 

And the dish ran away with the spoon. 

“Oh! that will not do,” said a codfish who had a 
very big mouth. “You cannot make us believe a 
cow would jump over the moon.” But a dogfish, who 
seemed quite impressed, swam close to Edward and 
said: 

“Tell me about the dog who laughed. He must be 
some of our family. Does he resemble me?” 

Edward laughed and told the dogfish that the dog 
in the story had four legs and did not resemble him 
in the least. 

Just then there was a terrible commotion and the 
water became so muddy that Edward could not see. 

“Oh dear!” said the shark. “Here comes the 
whale. He is so large that he upsets everybody.” 

The whale put Edward in mind of a story, and 
when the water was clear again he began : 

“ Once upon a time, ages and ages ago, there was a 
man named Jonah, and a whale swallowed him.” 

“Oh, oh, my poor great-great-grandfather !” said 
the whale, crying big tears, and Edward stopped. 

“What is the matter? Don’t you like it?” he asked. 


28 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


“That Jonah,” said the whale, shaking away his 
tears, “is to blame for indigestion in our family. You 
see, it was my great-great-grandfather’s great-great- 
grandfather who swallowed that Jonah, and he caused 
him to have indigestion so badly that all of our 
family inherited it.” 

“I beg your pardon, I am sure,” said Edward. “I 
am very sorry that I mentioned it. It is rather hard 
to tell stories to fish, as I do not know any fish stories. 
Did you ever hear of the ark?” 

As none of the fish had heard of it, Edward told 
how it rained forty days and as many nights, and how 
all the animals went with Noah. 

“Of course,” he told them, “there were not any 
fish in the ark, as they could swim and did not need 
Noah’s protection.” 

“I have heard my great-grandmother tell about 
that,” said a flying-fish. “She said that her great- 
great-grandmother told her that her great-great — ” 

Just then the other fish splashed the water with 
their tails and stopped the flying-fish from talking. 

“Never mind about so many greats,” said the 
codfish. “What did your great-grandmother tell 
you?” 

“She said,” continued the flying-fish, “that one of 
my ancestors found himself in a tree when the waters 
of the flood receded, and he spread out his fins and 
flew down to the ocean, and that he was the first 
flying-fish.” 


EDWARD’S VISIT TO THE FISH 


29 


“Oh, well,” said a shark, “your family is not so 
old; some of us date back before the flood.” 

“I do wish you would stop quarreling,” said Ed- 
ward, “and tell me if I may go home. I should like 
my dinner.” 

“Ding, dong! Ding, dong!” sounded just then, 
and away went the fish. 

“Where are you going?” called Edward. 

“That is the bell-buoy calling us to dinner,” an- 
swered the codfish, and off they went, leaving Edward 
alone with the whale. 

“I’ll take you home,” he said. “Those silly fish 
never think of anything when they hear that bell 
ring. Get on my back.” 

Up they went to the top of the water, and the whale 
took Edward to the bank and he jumped to the land. 

“I am sorry about that whale story,” said Edward, 
“but you see, I only knew what I had read.” 

“Oh, that is all right,” said the whale. “Of course 
you did not know how that Jonah incident upset 
our family.” 



TWO BRAVE BOYS 

HEN the fire-bells ring in the city and you 



V V know that a house is on fire, it does not 
frighten you, because you know that the brave fire- 
men will be there soon and put out the fire. 

But in the country there are no firemen or engines 
and the people have cause to be alarmed when a fire 
breaks out. 

Thomas and William lived on a farm. Thomas was 
fourteen, and William twelve, but they were sturdy 
lads and knew how to work. 

One morning their father and mother went to the 
city, to be gone all day, and after the boys finished 
their work they went into the woods for berries. 

They had filled their pails and were returning when 
William said: “Father and mother must have come 
back early. I can see the smoke from the chimney.” 

Thomas did not answer for a minute, and then he 


TWO BRAVE BOYS 


3i 


said: “That smoke is not coming from the chimney; 
it looks as though one of the buildings is on fire.” 

Both boys ran as fast as they could, and when they 
were nearer William said, “It’s the bam, and we 
must get the horses out.” 

The poor animals were kicking about in their 
stalls, and frantically tugging at their halters. The 
smoke was thick and the boys could just see into the 
stalls. 

“We must wet our handkerchiefs and tie them 
over our mouths," said William, running to the 
pump. It takes more time to tell about it than it 
took the boys to do this. Then they ran into the 
bam and untied the two horses and led them out. 

Thinking that they would look out for themselves, 
the boys began pumping water to pour on the flames. 

They wet their heads again and went, into the 
barn with pails of water, when the horses came run- 
ning in and acting in the most frantic manner. One 
of them knocked William to the floor, and in the 
smoke Thomas did not see him, and, supposing that 
he would catch one of the horses, Thomas caught the 
other and led him out and tied him to a tree. 

When William did not appear he began to be 
frightened, for the flames were coming up through 
the floor, but Thomas did not stop to think of that. 
He knew William was in the burning barn. 

Wetting his face and head again, he ran into the 
barn. His feet struck something, and he felt to see 


32 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


what it was. It was William, who had struck his 
head in falling, and the smoke had made him 
faint. 

Thomas dragged him out and laid him on the 
ground, and went back for the other horse, that hap- 
pened to be near the door just then. The flames had 
singed his tail and mane, and he was a sorry-looking 
animal. Thomas tied him to a tree and then 
went to William. 

He wet his face, and after a while he opened his eyes. 
“What is the matter?” he asked. 

Thomas told him. “And now we must save the 
house and other buildings,” he said, “by putting out 
this fire. You get the dinner-horn,” he told William, 
“and blow as loudly as you can.” 

The pump was near enough to the bam so that he 
did not have to run far, and Thomas pumped and car- 
ried pails of water, and threw it on the burning floor. 
His poor arms ached and his hands smarted, but he 
did not stop, and by the time the horn was heard by 
the farmer down the road Thomas had succeeded in 
nearly extinguishing the flames. The lower part of 
the barn was damaged, but by his hard work Thomas 
had kept the fire from spreading and saved the house. 
He had saved his brother, also, for if Thomas had 
not been brave and gone into the smoking bam 
William would have been burned. 

When their father and mother came home that 
night they saw from the road that the bam wa$ 


TWO BRAVE BOYS 


33 


burnt, and when the boys told them all that had 
happened they thought they had two brave boys. 

When their mother kissed them good night, she 
said, “I am proud of my heroes, but we must not 
forget the One who watched over and protected you, 
and thank Him in our prayers.” 



WHAT THE SPARROW SAW 

“ T HAVE seen strange sights to-day,” said a sparrow, 
1 as he perched on a limb beside another sparrow. 

“What have you seen?” asked the second sparrow. 

“I saw two poor children.” 

“You can see those every day,” said the second 
sparrow. 

“Yes, I know that,” said the first sparrow. “But 
these children were thoughtful of others, even though 
they were very poor. I’ll tell you about it. Yester- 
day, when the snow was falling fast, I went behind a 
broken blind on a tenement-house. I saw some rags 
sticking out of a broken window and I flew to the 
sill and began to pick at them, when I heard a voice 
say, ‘Oh, look, Nellie! There is a sparrow,’ and 
two children came to the window. They looked cold 
and hungry, but the boy, whose name was Johnnie, 


WHAT THE SPARROW SAW 


35 

said: ‘Poor little bird, out in the snow-storm! He 
must be cold.’ 

“ ‘And perhaps he is hungry,’ said Nellie. ‘Let 
us give him some of our dinner.’ 

“ ‘ We have only two pieces of bread,’ said Johnnie, 
‘ but we can give the poor sparrow part of it.’ 

“I flew away, for I did not feel sure of their gen- 
erosity, but from behind the blind I saw Johnnie open 
the window and Nellie put pieces on the sill; then 
they pulled off pieces of rags and put them in a corner 
of the window-frame so I could get them. When I 
flew back to the sill I heard Nellie say: 

“ ‘We will wrap the blanket around us and save 
the coal so we can have a fire when mother comes 
home; perhaps she did not find work and she will 
be cold.’ 

“ ‘I wish we could have something hot for her 
supper,’ said Johnnie, ‘but if she found work she will 
bring something, and we will make her sit in a chair, 
like a queen, and we’ll cook it and play we are her 
pages.’ 

“ ‘Do look at that sparrow,’ said Nellie. ‘He is 
picking the rags in pieces.’ I flew back of the blinds 
with a piece of the rags and when I came back to the 
sill Nellie was telling Johnnie that the Bible said 
‘ not a sparrow falls to the ground without our Heav- 
enly Father knowing it,’ and that the Bible also said 
‘ that if He took care of the sparrows He would take 
care of His people.’ ” 


36 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


“I do not think they were cared for,” said the 
second sparrow. 

“Wait and see,” said the first sparrow. “Just then 
a piece of bread fell to the street and dropped in front 
of an old gentleman, and when I flew down to pick 
it up he said: ‘Well, well! The poor are the ones that 
give of their substance. I’ll watch where that bird 
goes.’ So I flew back to the window, and the children 
were there laughing because I had found my crumb. 

“I waited, and soon a knock came at the door. 
Johnnie opened it, and there stood the old gentleman. 
‘Did you feed sparrows?’ he asked, coming in and 
closing the door. 

“ ‘Yes, sir,” said Johnnie. 

“ ‘Where is your mother?’ asked the old gentleman. 

Johnnie told him she was out looking for work. 

“ ‘And your father,’ he inquired, ‘where is he?’ 

“ ‘Father is dead,’ Johnnie told him. 

“ ‘Have you had your dinner?’ the old gentleman 
asked Nellie. 

“ ‘Yes, sir,’ she replied. 

“ ‘What did you have?’ he asked. 

“ ‘Some bread,’ answered Nellie. 

“ ‘And you gave part of that to the sparrows?’ said 
the old gentleman. ‘You are pretty good children. 
I am glad I have found such big hearts in such little 
bodies. I’ll be back .soon,’ he said, as he went out.” 

“Didn’t you almost freeze,” said the second 
sparrow, “listening in the cold?” 


WHAT THE SPARROW SAW 


37 


“Oh, I kept hopping around, and then I went be- 
hind the blind when the old gentleman went out.” 

“Did he come back?” asked the second sparrow, 
who was very much interested by this time. 

“Yes. I heard the door close and I flew back to 
the sill. He had a man with him who was unpacking 
two large baskets. There were all kinds of food. And 
in a few minutes the door opened and a man came 
in with coal and wood. You never saw two children 
so pleased. 

“ ‘ Now we can have a hot supper for mother,’ they 
said. 

“ ‘Yes,’ said the old gentleman, ‘and I will stay 
and help you.’ 

“But what do you suppose those children did? 
They came to the window and put out a heap of 
crumbs for me.” 

“ No !” said the second sparrow. “ Did they, really?” 

“Yes, they did, and I heard Nellie say, ‘We must 
feed the sparrow first, for if it had not been for him 
we should not have had all these nice things.’ 

“By and by their mother came in. She hadn’t 
found work and she looked tired, but she was so sur- 
prised to see the old gentleman and the hot supper 
that the tired look disappeared. Then the children 
talked so fast that I could not hear much mqre, but 
I know the old gentleman is going to take them to 
live with him, because he needs a housekeeper, and 
the children are going to school.” 


38 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


“I think you had better watch and see where they 
go,” said the second sparrow; “you will always have 
something to eat if you go to them.” 

“I shall,” said the first sparrow, “because I feel 
that the children and I had the same good intentions 
in our hearts.” 



THE LAND OF “I FORGOT” 

L OUISE was a very forgetful little girl. She for- 
got to bathe her face in the morning, she forgot 
to fold her napkin before she left the table, she forgot 
the errand her mother told her to do before school- 
time, and in fact she forgot many things which she 
ought to have remembered. 

One day while she was out walking she met a kind- 
looking old gentleman, who asked her to walk with 
him. His hair was white and long, he wore a long 
coat and a wide-brimmed hat, and walked with a 
cane. 

He smiled and chatted in such a pleasant manner 
that Louise did not notice where she was until they 
were in a queer-looking village where there seemed 
to be only children, and they were doing such queer 
things. One little boy was sweeping the steps and 
walks of a house, and as fast as he cleaned them the 
4 


40 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


dirt would pile up again and he had to keep on sweep- 
ing. Another boy was weeding a garden, but the 
weeds grew again as soon as he pulled them out of 
the ground, and there were so many that Louise 
asked the old gentleman why the boy tried to clear 
the garden at all. 

“This is the land of ‘I Forgot,’ ” said the old gen- 
tleman, and all the children are working to make up 
the work they forgot to do. The boy sweeping forgot 
so many mornings to do his work before school that 
it will take a long time for him to catch up to the 
present time. The boy weeding the garden forgot 
to help his mother do the weeding each Saturday, so 
the weeds grow very fast, and now he has a long row 
ahead of him.” 

The old gentleman led Louise into a house, and in 
one room sat a little girl before a mirror, combing her 
hair. It was a mass of tangles, and the little girl 
wept as she worked. 

“She forgot to comb her hair properly each day,” 
the old gentleman told Louise. In another room sat 
a little girl at the piano, playing. “This little girl 
forgot to practise,” the old gentleman said, “and now 
she has to work hard to catch up.” 

A boy was picking up hats and hanging them on 
the rack. The hall was filled with hats, and Louise 
wondered if he would ever finish his task. 

“He forgot to put his hat in the right place when 
he came in the house,” the old gentleman explained. 


THE LAND OF “I FORGOT 


4i 


In another room was a boy surrounded by shoes 
which he was polishing. “ I suppose he forgot to keep 
his shoes clean,” said Louise. 

“Yes,” replied the old gentleman, “and this boy 
forgot to have his hands clean when he came to the 
table.” Louise looked, and saw a boy bathing his 
hands and drying them and then plunging them into 
the soapy water and then drying them again. 

“Oh dear, what a lot of napkins!” said Louise, 
looking into another room. 

“Yes,” said the old gentleman. “There is a little 
girl behind that pile of napkins; she is folding them; 
she always forgot to fold hers when she left the table.” 

“Oh!” said Louise, faintly, and she felt her cheeks 
burn. They went into the street and met a little girl 
running back and forth. “What did she forget?” 
asked Louise. 

“She forgot to do the errands her mother told her 
to do before school, and she has a long, long way to 

go- 

“In this house,” said the old gentleman, as he 
opened the door of another house, “are the children 
who forget to pick up their toys and books and keep 
their room tidy.” 

“Oh!” said Louise, as she looked, for there were so 
many things strewn about the floor and on the tables 
and chairs that it looked like an endless task to 
Louise. 

“Will they ever finish their work?” she asked, 


42 TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 

“all these children who live in this land of ‘I 
Forgot’ ?” 

“I am sure that some of them will,’’ said the old 
gentleman, “and I shall let those who do go on with 
the every-day things of life.” 

“You will let them ?’ ’ said Louise. ‘ ‘ Who are you ?” 

“I am Memory,” said the old gentleman, “and the 
land of ‘ I Forgot ’ is where I train the children who 
cannot remember to do each day the things they 
should.” 

The old gentleman took Louise to the path that 
led out of the village and said: “Good-by. I may 
see you again some day.” 

“I do not think so,” Louise replied, “but I am 
pleased to have met you, and I hope all the children 
will soon be able to leave the land of ‘I Forgot.’ ” 

As Louise walked toward her home she resolved to 
remember in the future and not have her memory 
trained in the land of “ I Forgot.’ 



THE ANIMALS AND THE MIRROR 
UNT SUSAN sent an old-fashioned looking- 



D glass to the barn to be stored in the loft, with 
other discarded furniture. The farm-boy stood it on 
the floor of the barn until he should have time to 
store it away. The mirror was broad and long and 
had a dark wooden frame. 

An old duck wandered into the bam and caught 
sight of herself in the mirror. “There is another 
duck,” she said. “Wonder who she is?” And she 
walked toward the reflection. “She is rather 
friendly,” she continued. “She is walking toward me. 
But what large feet she has, and her feathers are very 
handsome. Goodness!” she said, as she bumped into 
the mirror, “if that duck isn’t in a glass case! Why 
are you in there?” she asked. “Well, you needn’t 
answer if you don’t want to,” she said, walking away. 
“A glass case is a good place for you.” 


44 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


Just then a pig came along, and, nosing around, he 
came in front of the mirror. “What are you doing 
in here?” he asked, thinking he saw another pig. 
His nose hit the glass, and he stepped back. “So 
you are in a glass pen. You are not very handsome 
and your nose is not as long as mine; I cannot see 
why you should have a glass pen.” And away he 
trotted to tell the other pigs about the very plain- 
looking pig. 

Pussy came along next, and walked in front 
of the mirror, turning her head and swinging 
her tail. She had seen a mirror before and knew 
that she was a handsome cat. But she saw the 
dog coming in the door, so she walked away, for 
she did not want the dog to think her vain. The 
dog walked over to the mirror and sniffed, and 
then looked foolish. He had seen a mirror before, 
but not so often as puss. 

“Thought it was another dog, didn’t you?” she 
laughed. “Here comes the donkey. Let us hide be- 
hind those barrels and see what he does.” 

“Well, if they haven’t got another donkey!’’ he 
said. “ I suppose I should speak first, as I have lived 
here so long. He is coming to meet me. Well, that is 
friendly,’’ he said. 

Bump! His nose hit the glass. 

“Well, if I sha’n’t give up !” he said. “ You are in a 
glass case. You are a homely creature,’’ he remarked, 
after waiting for the other donkey to speak, “and 


THE ANIMALS AND THE MIRROR 


45 

your ears are not so long as mine,” and he walked off 
with a disgusted air. 

The cat rolled over and over, and the dog buried 
his head in his paws. 

Did you ever see anything so funny V * he said to puss. 

“Hush!” she replied. “Here is the rooster.” 

The rooster stopped quite still when he saw him- 
self in the mirror. “Well, where did you come 
from?” he asked, bristling up his feathers. He 
walked straight to the mirror and flew at the other 
rooster. 

Bang! He brought up against the glass. 

“In a glass case, are you?” he said, as he stretched 
out his neck and looked very fierce. “Well, you 
should be; you are a sight — your feathers are ruffed 
and you are not half as handsome as I am.” 

And off he walked, satisfied that he was handsomer 
than the other rooster. 

“Oh dear!” laughed the cat. “I certainly shall 
scream. They all think they are handsomer than 
their reflections. Here comes the turkey gobbler.” 

The gobbler walked leisurely over to the mirror 
and looked at his reflection. “Now,” he asked, 
“where in the world did they get you? You are an 
old, baldheaded-looking creature, and your feathers 
need oiling; you look like a last year’s turkey,” and 
off he strutted. 

The cat and dog leaned against the barrels and 
laughed until the tears ran down their faces. 


46 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


“Keep still,” said the dog. “Here comes the 
speckled hen and her chickens.” 

Speckled hen walked around, picking up bits of 
corn, when suddenly she looked up. “There is a 
hen with a brood of chicks, but they are not so hand- 
some as mine,” she said, walking toward the mirror. 
4 ‘ Where do you live ? I know you do not belong here, ’ ’ 
she said, and she looked closer at the other hen. 

Click! Her bill hit the glass. 

“Well, if she isn’t in a glass coop!” she said, step- 
ping back. “If master has brought her and those 
chicks there will be trouble. Mercy! One of the 
chicks is bow-legged, and they are a skinny-looking 
lot, now I look closer.” And she clucked to her chicks 
and walked out of the barn. 

“Oh dear! Oh dear!” laughed the dog, “they all 
think the same. They certainly are a conceited lot. 
Here comes the goose.” 

The goose waddled over to the mirror. “Well, 
well! If here isn’t a new goose!” she said, “and she 
is walking toward me. I must be friendly.” 

Snap ! Her bill struck the mirror. 

“Oh, you are in a glass box !” she said. “ Have you 
come to stay?” And she stretched out her neck. 
“My, but you have a nice long neck!” she remarked, 
“and your feathers are nice and smooth. I suppose 
you cannot hear in that box,” she said, nodding good- 
by, and the other goose, of course, nodded also, and 
goosey went away satisfied. 


THE ANIMALS AND THE MIRROR 


47 


“She is not so much of a goose as the others,” the 
cat remarked. 

“The peacock is coming,” said the dog. “Keep 
quiet.” 

In walked the peacock, and, seeing another bird, 
as he supposed, he spread his beautiful tail to its full 
width. He walked about, but never a word did he say. 

“Now, what do you make of that?” asked the dog. 
“Did he know that he was looking in a looking- 
glass, or wouldn’t he speak to another bird!” 

“ I do not know,” said the cat, “but here comes the 
goat. Hide, quick!” 

Billy came clattering over the boards, when sud- 
denly he saw the other goat. He looked at him a 
minute. “I’ll show him,” he said, running at the 
mirror with head down. 

Bang! Smash! Crash! And Billy jumped back, 
the most astonished goat you ever saw. 

“Now you have done it,” said the horse, who had 
been watching all the time from his stall. “All the 
animals will get out now and run away.” 

“What are you talking about!” said the dog, who 
was laughing so hard he could scarcely walk. “There 
are no animals in there. That is a looking-glass ; you 
see yourself when you are in front of it.” 

“Do you mean to tell me that those animals have 
all been looking at themselves and finding fault with 
their own looks?” said the horse, with his eyes nearly 
popping out of his head. 


4 8 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


“Of course,” said the cat. “Can’t you see that 
Billy has smashed it?” 

“Well, that is the best I ever heard,” said the 
horse, laughing, “but I wish I had known that was 
a looking-glass before Billy broke it. I should very 
much like to know how I look.” 

“You might not have recognized yourself; the 
others didn’t,” said the dog. 



DISCONTENTED DEWDROP 
NE morning a little dewdrop was resting on the 



V_-/ petal of a wild rose that grew beside a river. 
The sun shining on it made it glisten like a diamond, 
and a lady who was passing stopped to admire its 
beauty. 

“It is the most beautiful thing in the world,” she 
remarked. “See the colors in that tiny little drop! 
Isn’t it wonderful?” 

“Wonderful!” repeated the dewdrop, when the 
lady walked away. “If I were like the river I might 
be wonderful ; it is too bad. Here I am sitting while 
the river can run on and on, and see all the sights. 
It bubbles and babbles as it goes, and that is worth 
while. I have never a chance to be wonderful. Oh, 
if I were only in the river water I might be something.” 

Just then a breeze, passing, heard the little dew- 
drop’s wish. “You shall have your wish, foolish dew- 
drop,” she said, blowing gently on the rose, which 


50 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


swayed, and off went the little dewdrop into the 
rushing river. 

“This is like something, being a part of this river,” 
said the dewdrop, as it mingled its tiny drop with 
the running river. “Now I am worth admiring and 
can see something of the world.” 

On and on it ran with the water of the river, but it 
was no longer a dewdrop; it was a part of the river. 

“ I wish I could stop for a minute so some one might 
admire me,” said the silly little drop, for it thought 
it could still be seen and was making all the babbling 
it heard as the river ran along. 

But no one admired it, nor did it stop; on went the 
river to a larger river, and by and by it came to the 
bay and the dewdrop went rolling into it with the 
other water. 

“Surely I am greater now than ever and worth 
admiring,” thought the drop, but it heard no sweet 
words such as the lady spoke of the little dewdrop on 
the rose by the river. 

The bay mingled at last with the ocean 
and little dewdrop knew at last that it was no 
longer a thing to be admired for itself alone, but a 
part of the great ocean. It was completely lost in 
the vastness of the mighty waters of which it was 
only a drop. 

The breeze went whispering over it, calling, “Little 
dewdrop, little dewdrop, where are you?” 

But the drop answered never a word. It did not 


DISCONTENTED DEWDROP 


Si 

even hear the gentle voice of the breeze, so loud was 
the roar of the ocean. 

“Come away,” called a loud wind to the gentle 
breeze. “ That is no place for you. I must blow here 
and make the wave high, and you will never find 
your little dewdrop. It has been swallowed long ago 
by the ocean. Go back to your river and tell the other 
dewdrops the fate of their companion.” 

The gentle breeze went away and the loud wind 
swept the ocean, making the waves high and the roar 
louder and louder. The little dewdrop was there 
somewhere in a great whole, but it was lost forever 
in its longing to become great. 

The gentle breeze went back to the river, and as 
she sighed around the rose, where the discontented 
dewdrop had rested, she heard another drop say: 

“Look at the river. Isn’t it big? Here am I only 
a dewdrop, so small no one can see me.” 

“Ah, that is where you are mistaken, my dainty 
dewdrop,” said the gentle breeze. “You can be seen 
now, but if you were to become a part of the river 
you would never be seen. You would lose your iden- 
tity as soon as you mingled with the waters of the 
river. Be your own sweet self and be content with 
the part you play in this world. You are helping to 
make it more beautiful by your own dainty beauty. 
Do not wish to do a greater thing.” 

And then she told the fate of the discontented dew- 
drop that had wished to become great, and how, at 


52 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


last, it was swallowed by its own greatness, and its 
dainty beauty which had been so admired no longer 
remained. 

“Be content with the small part you play in this 
world,” she told the drop, “and do not long for 
greatness.” 



TOWSER 

T OWSER was an old dog. He had been on the 
farm for many years, and Farmer Mason thought 
he was too old to be a watch-dog any longer. So 
he brought a new dog home one day and put him in 
Towser’s house. Poor Towser did not understand 
it. He slept in the kitchen, and the new dog had his 
house in the yard and ate out of his dish. 

“Hello, Towser!” said pussy, the next morning. 
“How do you like sleeping in the house?” 

“ It was nice and warm,” said Towser, trying not to 
show his feelings. 

“Yes, I know that,” said pussy; “but you have 
looked out for things so long it must be hard to see 
some one in your place. He is a fine-looking fellow,” 
added pussy, as she went out the door. 

Towser did not go around where the dog-house was 
for several days. 


54 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


“Poor Towser,” said the farmer’s wife, one morn- 
ing, “he really seems to feel hurt at being put out of 
his house. I truly think he is a better watch-dog now 
than the new one, for a tramp came up to the 
door the other morning, and the new dog did not 
bark. Towser did, though, and drove him out in 
quick time.” 

“Towser has been a good dog,” said Farmer Ma- 
son, “but he has had his day. I think he should have 
an easy time, now he is old. I hope when I am old 
some one will let me take things easy. Don’t you 
worry about Towser; he’ll get used to things in a few 
days.” 

One day Towser was passing through the yard and 
the new dog growled. Towser did not notice him at 
first, but when he kept it up Towser walked toward 
him, growling and showing his teeth, and by the time 
he reached him the new dog turned and went into 
the house. 

“He is a coward,” said the old rooster, who was 
watching them. “Towser is worth three of him.” 

“But Towser is old,” said the little brown hen; 
“the new dog is young, and he is fine-looking, also.” 

“That is what puss thinks,” said the rooster. 
“Handsome is that handsome does, is what I think,” 
he said, strutting over to the pigpen. 

“Madam Pig,” he asked, “what do you think of 
the new dog?” 

“I think Towser the best,” she said. “That new 


TOWSER 

dog comes over here and barks at us just like a silly 
dog.” 

The rooster met the horse next. “How do you like 
the new dog?” he asked. 

“He is a stupid creature,” said the horse. “He 
runs at my heels and barks like any common dog, 
and I, for one, think it is a shame that Towser was 
put out of his house for that good-for-nothing animal.” 

One night Farmer Mason heard a loud barking, 
and then the smashing of glass. He took his gun and 
ran down-stairs. He found the window in the 
kitchen broken, and when he looked out, there was 
Towser standing over a man and growling very 
fiercely. The man was a burglar that had tried to 
enter the house by the kitchen window. 

The new dog was in his house. He had let the man 
come in the yard and did not bark. Towser wagged 
his tail and looked at his master in a very knowing 
manner. 

The next morning the new dog was led away by a 
boy to whom Farmer Mason had given him, and 
Towser was put back in his house. 

His master patted his head and said: “If you can 
catch a man at your age and hold him, you will do 
to look out for us for a while yet.” 

5 



A KNOTTY SUBJECT 

A N old hound dog sat in a barn doorway, looking 
very sad, and it looked as though there were 
tears in his eyes. Presently a rat ran close to him. 

‘ ‘ What is the matter, Mr. Hound ?” he asked. “You 
look very sad.” 

The hound absent-mindedly wiped his eyes with 
his ear and said, “The men took their guns this 
morning and went away without me.” 

“Well, suppose they did,” said the rat; “they 
may not have gone hunting. Where is the cat?” he 
asked, as he settled down near the dog. 

“Oh, she is in the house,” replied the hound, 
and he lay down and began playing with the 
rat’s tail. The rat was nibbling a piece of tallow 
and did not notice that the dog was tying knots 
in his long tail until he tied the second near the 
end, when he gave it an extra hard pull. “Ouch!” 


A KNOTTY SUBJECT 57 

cried the rat. “What in the world are you doing to 
my tail?” 

“Oh! I did not notice what I was doing,” said the 
dog. “I am so absent-minded.” 

“I should say you were,” said the rat. “It has 
always been my lot in life not to do this and not to 
do that, and now I shall have a tail of knots following 
me. Do try to untie them. ’ ’ 

But the dog had tied them too firmly ; he could not 
untie them. “ Here comes the goose,” he said; “we’ll 
ask her. Madam Goose, see if you can untie these 
knots in the rat’s tail.” 

“Why don’t you grind them out?” the goose said. 

So the rat jumped upon the grindstone, and the 
hound turned it, while the goose held the tail. After 
the first turn the rat jumped down and ran. “ I shall 
not have any tail left if you keep that up,” he said. 
“Mr. Horse,” he asked, “how can I get these knots 
out of my tail?” 

“Put on grease and they will slip out,” he replied. 
So the dog got the pot of wheel-grease and smeared 
the rat’s tail. But that did not move them. Then 
the pig came along and told them that if they pulled 
hard enough it could be straightened. So the rat 
put his front paws around the post, and the goose 
took the end of his tail in her bill, and the dog put 
his front paws around the goose, and the horse put his 
front legs around the dog, and the pig watched, to tell 
when it was straight, and they all pulled. But the rat let 


58 TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 

go of the post, and over they all went, rolling on the 
floor. 

“If you had not let go,” said the pig, “I am sure 
your tail could have been straightened. Here comes 
the donkey. Ask him.” 

“What shall I do, Donkey,” asked the rat, “to get 
the knots out of my tail?” 

“If you could roll the barn door over it,” said the 
donkey, “ypu could flatten it, and I am sure the 
knots would be gone.” The rat ran to the door and 
put his tail on the sill. But just then he saw the cat 
coming, and he ran into a hole, but his tail stuck out. 

By and by two chickens came along. “Oh, what 
a big worm!” said one, picking at it. 

“Give me half,” said the other, pulling at the other 
side, and they untied the knot. 

“What a funny worm!” they said, picking at it 
again. This time they pulled out the rat. This 
frightened them and they ran. 

But the rat called them back. “Come here,” he 
said. “Please untie the other knot. You have done 
what all the other animals failed to do.” 

But the chickens remembered having seen Mr. Rat 
in the hencoop, eating the eggs, and they ran farther 
away, saying, “Keep the other knot in your tail to 
remember not to eat our eggs.” 

So the rat had to run around the rest of his life 
with a knot in his tail, which we hope will make him 
remember not to do wrong things. 



DOROTHY’S KIMONO 


D OROTHY’S Uncle Ned had just returned from 
a trip around the world. He brought her many 
pretty things, but the present she liked best was a 
little kimono embroidered with flowers and butter- 
flies. Dorothy had been very ill and was just now 
able to sit up in a chair with pillows around her. 
The kimono she could wear when her little friends 
came to call, and she was very proud of it. 

“This kimono,” Uncle Ned told her, “I bought 
from a little Japanese girl, and she told me she 
wished the honorable little American girl who wore 
it might have happy dreams.” Dorothy thought this 
very funny, and wondered about it many times. One 
day when she was wearing her pretty kimono she was 
looking at a book, and opened to a page on which was 
this little verse: 


6o 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


Little Indian, Sioux or Crow, 

Little frosty Eskimo, 

Little Turk or Japanee, 

0! don’t you wish that you were me? 

Dorothy wondered if the little girl who had worn 
her kimono would wish to be in her place, and she 
wished she could see her. 

“Oh,” said Dorothy, “what beautiful trees!” For 
all at once she was in an orchard of cherry-trees. 
They were full of blossoms, and the ground looked 
as though it were covered with pink-tinged snow. 
“I wonder how I got here so soon,” Dorothy thought. 
“This is the land Uncle Ned told me about. Oh, how 
pretty the cherry blossoms look, falling all around. 
There is a little tea-house. I know, from Uncle Ned’s 
description.” And away she ran to a little house she 
saw in the distance. 

Dorothy saw a little Japanese girl serving tea to 
Japanese ladies who sat upon the floor. Their hair 
was so smooth and shiny she wished she could run 
her fingers over it. Then she saw a little house across 
a pretty little bridge. She walked over the bridge, 
looking around as she went. She saw green on every 
side, with the prettiest little houses peeping out from 
between the vines and trees. And there were the 
tiniest islands in the river under the bridge, with very 
small bridges connecting them. And very little 
houses were on the islands, and tiny Japanese men 
and women were walking to and fro. 


DOROTHY’S KIMONO 


61 


Dorothy thought she would like to play with them. 
She continued her walk across the bridge and went 
up the bank to a little house she saw among the 
trees. Just as she was entering, a dainty little Jap- 
anese girl met her, and she wore a kimono, just like 
the one Uncle Ned brought to her. 

“Oh,” said Dorothy, “you have a kimono just like 
mine. I do wish I had worn mine so you could see 
that they are just alike.” 

But the little girl shook her head. “No, honorable 
lady,” she said, “there is not another like mine in 
the world. My honorable grandmother made this, 
and it is the only one of its kind.” But Dorothy 
knew better. 

The little girl invited her to enter, and stepped 
backward, bowing very low. 

“Oh, what beautiful chrysanthemums!” exclaimed 
Dorothy, as she saw a jar almost as tall as a man, 
filled with the yellow and white flowers. Then the 
little girl clapped her hands, and a servant appeared 
with tea on a shiny tray. Dorothy tried to sit as 
the little girl did, but she could not tuck her feet 
urtder her as she did, and the cup did not have a 
handle, so Dorothy watched her little hostess. But 
she could not pick up her cup as she did. 

“Oh dear, my legs are cramped,” said Dorothy, 
after a while. “ Can’t I walk about?” But when she 
tried to get up she felt very awkward, for the little 
Japanese girl arose very gracefully. They walked out 


62 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


upon a balcony, and there Dorothy saw the most 
beautiful waterfall, and above that were little temples 
with queer figures on them, just as Uncle Ned had 
told her. 

She walked back to the little room where the chrys- 
anthemums were, and then she noticed that there 
were no chairs in the room. There was matting upon 
the floor, and funny little stools. Dorothy was glad 
she did not live in a country where there were no 
chairs to sit upon. Then she thought of the lines in 
the book, “Little Turk or Japanee, don’t you wish 
that you were me?” And just then the strangest 
thing happened. All the chrysanthemums began to 
nod their heads. One was her mother, and another 
her father, and one was Uncle Ned. And there was 
her white-capped nurse, and here she was sitting in 
her chair with the pillows around her. And the nurse 
said, “You must drink this now.” 

Her father laughed, and said, “You must have had 
a pleasant dream; you were smiling in your sleep.” 
Dorothy told Uncle Ned that she had seen the little 
Japanese girl who sold him her kimono and had tea 
with her. And then she heard her mother say: 

“We must not talk in here again; it is too much 
excitement for her just now.” 

But Dorothy was glad she had seen the little girl 
who had wished “the honorable little American girl 
happy dreams,” and hopes that some day she may 
visit her again. 



WHY THE TREES BEND 
NE day a little fairy said to an old fairy: “What 



v_y makes the trees bend and sway, and the leaves 
fly away and leave the poor trees bare and alone?” 

“Listen, and I will tell you,” said the old fairy. 
“Once upon a time the trees were as still as the 
rocks. They did not bend or swing about their long 
branches. One day a bird from the south alighted 
upon one of the boughs of a tree and began telling it 
of the wonderful things it had seen. The bird sang 
out the gladness which was in his heart, and the tree 
listened and wondered why the bird sang so sweetly. 

“ ‘Tell me,’ said the tree, ‘why you are so happy.' 

“‘Oh, I have seen such wonderful things!’ replied 
the bird. ‘I come from the warm, sunny south, 
where the trees are greener, the flowers sweeter, and 
the sun brighter than here. The moonlight on the 
water is like fairyland, and it fills my heart with 


64 TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 

gladness. I have come to tell all of the beauty of 
that land.’ 

“The tree began to wish it could see all this. 

“By and by another bird came; he sang a different 
song. His notes were cold, and the tree wondered 
what he had seen. ‘Tell me,’ said the tree, ‘are you 
unhappy?’ 

“ ‘Oh no!’ said the bird, ‘I am singing of what I 
have seen.’ 

“ ‘Tell me,’ said the tree. 

“ ‘ I have been to a land where there is snow,’ said 
the bird, ‘and big icebergs. The white polar bear 
crawls over great fields of ice, and the seal and 
walrus sun themselves on beds of snow. I have seen 
the Eskimo, and his sleds and dogs, and the land 
where the sun never seems to set.’ 

“ ‘Oh dear!’ said the tree, ‘I wish I could see these 
things,’ and it began to move uneasily. 

“Another day a bird came and sang a song 
which was different from the others. ‘ Where 
have you been and what have you seen?’ asked 
the tree. 

“ ‘Oh, I flew here from the ocean,’ said the bird. 
‘ I have seen wonderful things. There is a great blue 
ocean out there, and huge waves rise from it and 
fish swim in it. There are many things under it, too.’ 

“ ‘What do you see under the ocean?’ asked the 
tree, still moving. 

“ ‘Oh, there are rocks and wonderful plants and 


WHY THE TREES BEND 65 

coral, and sometimes when I am skimming over the 
waves I see whales and sharks,’ said the bird. 

“The tree spread out its branches and longed to be 
away to these strange lands, and it whispered to the 
other trees and they began to be uneasy and move their 
branches. Then the leaves blew away, one by one ; still 
the tree was unable to go to the land it longed to see. 

“ One day another bird came to sing in the branches 
of the tree. It sang sweetly and hopped from branch 
to branch. 

“ ‘Where did you come from?’ asked the tree, 

‘ and what have you seen in your travels ?’ 

“ ‘I have not traveled far,’ the bird replied; ‘only 
through the woods about here, but I have seen won- 
derful things. The sky is very blue, the sun is bright 
and warm, and the water is beautiful.’ 

“ ‘But you do not see the snow, and the moonlight 
on the water, and the beautiful flowers,’ said the tree. 
‘I have heard of wonderful countries that have all 
this and much more.’ 

“ ‘But you can find all those things right here if 
you look about,’ the bird replied. ‘ In winter we have 
the snow and ice, and the moonlight is as beautiful 
here upon the water as anywhere. It is the same 
moon shining all over.’ 

“ ‘Is that true?’ asked the tree. 

“ ‘Yes,’ said the bird; ‘you have all these wonder- 
ful things around you. If you look you will find that 
it is true,’ 


66 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


“And that is the reason,” the old fairy continued, 
“that the trees swing and bend; they are looking at 
all the beautiful things that have been given to the 
world. But they also are stretching out their branches 
and bending low, hoping to get a glimpse of the won- 
derful things the bird from the ocean told about, for 
you know that no mortals are quite satisfied with 
what is given to them; they are looking and wishing 
for that which is beyond their reach.” 



THE COLOR FESTIVALS 
NCE upon a time the fairies, elves, and gnomes 



^ met to have a party. “Let us hold it in the 
woods,” said the elves, and they all agreed to that, 
but the elves wanted to change the color of the trees 
and bushes, as they thought they would show up 
better in the moonlight. 

“Make them red,” said the gnomes, but. the elves 
wanted them yellow, and the fairies did not want 
them changed, as they were fond of green. 

“But they look so dull in the moonlight,” said the 
elves. 

“And now the weather is so cool at night, the red 
will look warmer,” said the gnomes. 

The gnomes and the elves finally agreed to have 
the trees and bushes red and yellow, but the fairies 
would not consent, and still held to their choice of 
green. 


68 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


“We will have a party of our own,” said the 
fairies. “You elves and gnomes can have yours later. 
I am sure our party will be the prettiest.” 

“We will see,” the others said. “You can 
have your party now, but when you see our 
gorgeous party of red and yellow you will be 
sorry.” 

So the elves and gnomes went away and the fairies 
began work at once, for they had much work to do. 

The next night, when the moon was shining very 
brightly, the elves and gnomes crept very softly to 
the edge of the woods and looked in. Their hearts 
sank when they saw how beautiful everything looked 
in the moonlight. The trees, with their beautiful 
green foliage, shone as though they were polished, the 
rocks were covered with velvety-looking moss, and 
some of the bushes were filled with white buds, while 
others were covered with small pink blossoms. The 
nightingale was singing sweetly, and the rabbits were 
peeping from behind the rocks. Squirrels darted over 
the vine-covered ground. It was truly a fairyland, 
and the elves and gnomes were in despair. 

One old elf, who was very wise, told them he had 
heard of an artist who made wonderful pictures, and 
perhaps they could get him to help them. “His name 
is Jack Frost,” he told them. They had to wait a 
long time before they could have their party, for 
Jack Frost was very busy in the north, just then. 
But one night, when the moon was big and the old 


THE COLOR FESTIVALS 69 

man was smiling his broadest smile, the elves and 
gnomes held their party. 

The fairies darted around in the outside of the 
woods, and were filled with envy when they beheld 
the gorgeous sight. The trees and bushes were of 
the most glorious shades of red and yellow. The 
gnomes had left all of the rocks open as they came 
out, and in front of each stood a yellow pumpkin, 
which had been hollowed out and filled with big red 
apples. The elves had placed corn-stalks, which they 
had changed to a yellow color, around the rocks and 
trees. 

The poor little fairies were afraid they were out- 
done. But an old owl who heard them talking told 
them that he had seen both festivals, and that their 
party was as pretty as this one, although neither of 
them could call their party the best. And he thought 
the gnomes and elves each year should hold a yellow- 
and-red festival and the fairies a green one. And that 
is the reason we find the trees red and yellow in the 
autumn; it is then the elves and gnomes hold their 
festival. And when the trees are green and the flowers 
are in bloom we may know that the fairies are holding 
their green festival, in the springtime. 



HOW THE WATER-LILIES GREW 
NE night the gnomes and elves held a meeting 



to decide upon a flower which would help to 
beautify the world. 

“But where can we place it after it is made?” said 
the elves. “ The fields are filled with flowers. There 
are the dandelion, the daisy, goldenrod, violet, and 
many others.” 

“We’ll put it in the water,” said a gnome. 

And so it was decided that the flower they made 
should be placed in the water. 

Then they had to decide upon the color. “Of 
course,” said one elf, “part of it must be green.” 
They all agreed to that. But the other color caused 
much trouble. Some wanted pink, others white, and 
some gold. One old gnome thought white with a gold 
center and green leaves would be pretty, and all 
agreed to the green and white, but no one would side 


HOW THE WATER-LILIES GREW 


7i 


with him about the gold center. One of the elves 
held to his first choice of pink. But it was finally 
decided that the flower should be white with green 
leaves. 

Away scampered some of the elves to borrow a 
kettle from a witch in the woods. And soon all were 
at work. The gnomes brought from under the earth 
bags filled with wonderful white stuff, which they 
guarded very carefully. This they poured into the 
kettle, and the gnomes perched upon the sides and 
stirred for a long time. The elves were very busy 
making the green part. They gathered moss from 
the rocks and ground it between two stones, and 
then rolled it out upon a flat rock, polishing it with 
their little hands until it shone like glass. Then they 
cut out the leaves. 

When the gnomes had the white part ready they 
poured it upon a flat rock and rolled it out and cut 
out the petals, which looked like wax. Then all the 
elves and gnomes set to work making the flowers, 
and soon they had thousands of beautiful green-and- 
white lilies. The elf who wanted pink in the flower 
sat a little away from the others, and every once in 
a while he would put a dash of pink on the white 
petals, and a few he made all pink, and no one dis- 
covered that he was having his way. 

But the gnome who wanted the gold center sat 
alone. He was thinking, and did not help with the 
flower-making. When the lilies were all finished they 
6 


72 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


carried them to the pond and called the frogs to 
help them. They put very long stems on the lilies, 
so they might be fastened to the bottom of the 
pond. 

The frogs took the stems in their mouths and set 
them firmly in the mud, and the pond looked as 
though the frogs were just poking their noses through 
the water. 

“Every one must be up early in the morning,” said 
one of the elves, “to see the lilies bloom,” and away 
they all scampered, for it was very late. The elves 
slipped under the leaves and into the trees, and the 
gnomes went into the earth and rocks. 

But the old gnome who wanted the gold center 
still sat thinking, and as soon as the others were out 
of sight he started off as fast as his little legs would 
carry him to a mountain where there was gold. 

There he filled a bag and returned with it just be- 
fore the sun came up. He made a boat of the bark 
of a tree and sailed out upon the pond. He went to 
every lily and opened it, and right in the center of 
each he dropped a little of the gold. Then he hurried 
to the shore and hid behind a bush. Soon the elves 
and gnomes were popping out from their sleeping- 
places and running toward the pond to watch the 
opening of their flowers. Slowly the lilies unfolded 
and the bright golden center met their eyes. 

“When did he do it?” asked one. 

But the flowers looked so beautiful that they for- 


HOW THE WATER-LILIES GREW 


73 


gave the old gnome for deceiving them, and they did 
not notice the pink ones. But some time when you 
are gathering water-lilies you will find a few tinted 
pink or even a whole pink lily, and these are the 
ones the little elf colored on the sly. 



THE FAIRIES’ DISGUISE 
NCE upon a time there lived an old woman in 



a little house on the edge of the woods. She 
had a little garden back of the house and in front 
grew the prettiest flowers of all kinds. There were 
goldenglow sunflowers, pansies, petunias, mari- 
golds, and all the gay-colored flowers you can think 
of, and she called them her children. 

The old lady loved them dearly and gave them 
the best of care. 

She had plenty to eat in the summer, when the 
vegetables grew in the garden, but when the winter 
came it was very hard for the old lady to get enough 
to eat. 

One night, when the wind was howling around her 
little house, she sat before the fire, wondering what 
she would eat the next day, for all the food was gone. 


THE FAIRIES’ DISGUISE 


75 


“If I only had my flower-children to look at,” she 
said, “that would be some comfort, but they are 
asleep under the cold ground and will not show me 
their smiling faces until spring.” 

Suddenly the door opened and a little creature, or, 
I should say, a flower, for she looked like a pansy 
walking about, entered the room. Then a ragged 
sailor came dancing in; then a marigold followed; 
and a goldenglow sunflower walked very stiffly into 
the room, and soon the place seemed like a flower- 
garden. It looked as though all the flowers had come 
to visit the old lady, from under the snow. 

“Why, my children, how did you get here?” the 
old lady asked. “ I did not know you could get out 
of the cold earth before spring.” 

“We do not leave there often,” said one flower, 
“but we knew you were lonely and wanted us, and 
we begged to be allowed to visit you just for one 
night.” Each flower had a smiling face and the old 
lady quite forgot her hunger. 

“We will get supper for you,” said one flower. 
“You take care of us all the spring and summer and 
for one night we will wait on you.” 

The door opened and in walked a platter with a 
roast of beef upon it. A dish of potatoes trotted 
after it, dishes of food of all kinds came in next, and 
just as one of the flowers was closing the door, a loud 
call was heard and in rushed a pot of tea, puffing 
steam through its nose. 


76 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


“Oh dear,” it said, “I’m all out of breath, I ran 
so fast; I waited to steep, and the other dishes got 
ahead of me, but I know the dear old lady would 
rather have me than any.” 

The flowers ran around the table, placing the dishes 
upon it, and the legs ran out the door as soon as the 
dishes were moved. They did look so funny, all 
those legs running without any bodies. 

“Now,” said a tall sunflower, “your dinner is 
ready, mother.” 

And all the flowers crowded around her chair and 
pushed it to the table. “ I did not know you were so 
strong,” said the old lady. 

“No,” said one flower, “but you knew we were 
beautiful; you see more beauty in us than any one, 
and you love us all the year. That makes us strong 
in our love for you, and we can do anything.” 

While the old lady was eating her dinner some of 
the flowers ran into the closet and looked into the 
empty flour-barrel, and when they put on the cover 
it was full of soft white flour. Then the sugar-box 
was visited, and when they left the pantry there was 
food to last for the winter. When the old lady fin- 
ished her dinner the flowers cleared the table, and 
then they began to dance. 

They sang as they whirled around the room, and 
soon the old lady was asleep. Then the flowers 
stopped dancing. They went to the fire and put on 
a big log, and then one of them pointed to the clock. 


THE FAIRIES’ DISGUISE 


77 


“Look,” she said, “it is one minute of twelve, and 
we only borrowed these clothes up to twelve o’clock; 
we had better hurry.” 

They opened the door very softly, but when they 
reached the steps the clock began to strike, and 
when the last stroke sounded there were in the moon- 
light a group of fairies; the flowers had disappeared. 
The fairies had visited the dear old lady dressed as 
her flower-children because she loved them so dearly, 
and they thought if they disguised themselves as the 
flowers they could help the old lady without causing 
her to wonder who they were. 



HOW THE DAISY GOT HER YELLOW EYE 

A LONG time ago the yellow-and- white daisy was 
all white, for she did not have a yellow eye. 
One night the fairies held a dance in a daisy-field. 
The Queen was there in her little carriage, which was 
a sea-shell drawn by two white doves. A firefly on 
either side lighted her way, and the elves, who had 
not been invited to the dance, followed the firefly 
lights, for they suspected the fairies were having a 
party. When the dance began the elves hid around 
the field in the grass where they could not be seen, 
because they were the same color as the grass. 

The fairies formed in circles and danced around the 
daisies, singing: 

“ Daisy, daisy, tell to-night, 

Why you’re always dressed in white. 

We would rather have you so, 

Little lady, white as snow.” 


THE DAISY’S YELLOW EYE 


79 


When the dance was finished, the fairy Queen 
told them to come the next night and dance again. 
The elves, when they heard this, became angry be- 
cause they were not invited for the second night, and 
they agreed to hold a meeting the next day to decide 
how they could revenge themselves for the slight. 

The meeting was held in a valley when the sun 
was shining brightly through the trees, and one elf, 
who was wiser than the others, proposed that they 
gather the sunbeams and throw them at the fairies 
when they were dancing that night, which would 
frighten them very much, as the fairies were afraid 
of the sunshine and only dared to dance in the dim 
light of the moon. 

So the elves filled their pockets with sunlight and 
waited for the fairies to gather. That night when the 
fairies had formed for the dance and were singing : 

“ Daisy, daisy, tell to-night, 

Why you’re always dressed in white. 

We would rather have you so, 

Little lady, white as snow — ” 

the elves rushed out from their hiding-place in the 
grass and pelted the fairies with the sunbeams. But 
each little fairy hid behind a daisy, and as the sun- 
beams fell they stuck in the hearts of the daisies, and 
the next morning each little flower had a golden-yellow 
center just the color of a sunbeam. 



THE MAGIC GLOVES 

* 

N ORA was a little orphan girl. She lived with 
her aunt, who had three daughters, and Nora 
did all the work. 

Her three cousins would get up in the morning and 
say, “We want our breakfast. Bring it to us, Nora.” 
Then they would say, “Wash the dishes, Nora,” and 
then it would be, “We want our beds made and the 
house made tidy; you do it, Nora,” until poor 
Nora wished her name was changed. 

She worked from morning till night, while her 
cousins sat in comfortable chairs and read a book. 

One day they sent her to the well for a pail of 
water. “Oh dear,” said Nora, as she walked along, 
“I wish I had two pairs of hands, so I could get all 
the work done and have a little time to rest.” 

“If you will wear these gloves,” said some one be- 
hind her, “you need not work so hard.” Nora looked, 



THE MAGIC GLOVES 


81 


and saw an old lady with a basket on her arm. She 
took from it a pair of gloves, which looked like cow- 
hide, and handed them to Nora. 

“They are not very pretty,” she said, “but they 
will help you if you wear them.” 

Nora took them and thanked her; she put them on 
and the pail of water became as light as a feather, 
and Nora found herself at the door of the house before 
she realized that the old lady had disappeared. 

The next morning when it was time to get the 
breakfast she put on the gloves, and the food was on 
the table in an instant. She went up-stairs to make 
the beds, and she had only to touch the clothes, and 
they flew into place ; the duster and broom flew over 
the furniture and floor as if by magic, and the work 
was finished while she thought about it. 

“Now that my work is finished,” said Nora, as she 
put the gloves in her pocket, “I can go for a walk.” 

She went down the road, and in a garden saw a 
farmer at work pulling weeds. They had grown over 
his vegetables, and he was bemoaning his lot. 

“I will never be able to clear my garden,” he said, 
“and my vegetables will spoil.” 

“Let me help you,” said Nora. 

“What can a girl do in a garden?” asked the 
farmer. “ But if you or any one will clear away those 
weeds I will give you a horse.” 

Nora put on the gloves and the farmer went into 
the house. The weeds fell under the magic touch of 


82 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


the gloves and soon the garden was cleared of the 
rank growth, and Nora called the farmer to look at 
her work. 

“You shall have the horse,” he said, “but I think 
you must have the power of a witch to have done so 
much work in this short time.” 

Nora did not tell him about the gloves, but took 
the horse and rode away on its back. She rode a 
long distance and came to a tavern. The landlord 
was in the yard, swinging his hands as though he were 
in great trouble. 

“What is the matter?” asked Nora. 

“I am in great distress about my tavern,” he told 
her. “The King and Queen are traveling this way 
and will stop here, and all my help have left me. 
There will be no dinner for them, and I shall be 
ruined, for they will go away, and no one will ever 
come here again.” 

“I will help you,” said Nora, jumping from her 
horse. 

“If you can,” said the landlord, “I will give you 
a horse.” 

Nora put on the gloves, and when the King and 
Queen arrived the dinner was ready, and they told 
the landlord that he had the best tavern on the road 
from London. 

The landlord gave Nora the horse, as he promised, 
and she rode away, leading the other beside her. 

By and by she came to a handsome house. By the 


THE MAGIC GLOVES 83 

gate stood a youth and a maiden. She was weeping. 
“What is the matter?” asked Nora. 

The youth told her that the father of the maid was 
a very rich man, while he was poor, and when he 
asked to marry the maid, her father’s only reply was, 
“When you pick up all the stones on my lands and 
put them in one pile, then you can marry my 
daughter.” 

“Of course, I never could do that,” said the youth, 
“and so we must say good-by.” 

“Dry your eyes,” said Nora to the maid, “and 
hold my horse’s, and do you get me a rake,” she told 
the youth, “and we will outwit her father.” 

Nora put on the magic gloves and went into the 
fields; the stones piled up as she went, and before 
long the stones were in a huge pile. 

“Go call your father,” she told the maiden, and 
when he came and saw what had been done he did 
not dare break his promise, and gave his consent to 
the marriage. 

“You must let me give you a coach,” said the 
maiden, “and then you can ride along with comfort. 
I want to show you how much I appreciate what you 
have done for us.” The horses were hitched to the 
coach and Nora rode away. When she came to her 
aunt’s home the cousins saw the handsome coach 
and horses and ran to meet her, for they were sure 
they had become rich. 

Nora told them she was not rich, but the coach 


84 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


belonged to her, and if they would help her to do 
the work each day, they could ride out in it. 

They were very willing to do this, for they were 
anxious to ride in such a handsome carriage. 

Nora did not tell the secret of the magic gloves, 
but she kept them and when there was more work 
than usual to be done she put them on and did it 
herself, and her aunt and cousins thought her a very 
clever girl. They were always willing to do their 
share, and afterward they lived happily together. 



HOW THE PANSIES GOT THEIR DRESSES 

O NCE upon a time there was a very rich man who 
was so fond of flowers that he built a house in 
the center of a large plot of ground, and surrounded 
it with flowers of all kinds, and there he lived all 
alone with a gardener and his flowers. 

The house was covered with beautiful pink and 
red rambler roses, which were separated by vines of 
white honeysuckle. There were roses of all kinds 
growing near the door, and graceful lilies lent their 
waxen beauty to the scene. There were also to be 
seen the hyacinth, poppy, heliotrope, geranium, the 
modest little violet in white and blue, and flowering 
bushes of every kind. 

One day the rich man said to his gardener: “You 
must find me a new flower. These are very beautiful, 
but I must have something new.” 

The poor old gardener was in despair. “Master,” 


86 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


he said, “I have been north and south, east and west, 
and all over the country, and you have growing 
around you all the different flowers I can find. I do 
not know where to look for a new flower.” 

“Go,” said his master, “and do not return until 
you find a new flower.” 

The poor man went into his garden, wringing his 
hands and weeping as he walked along. “What 
shall I do to please him?” he said. “I know of no 
other flower and I shall be without a home in my old 
age, for I dare not return without the flower for 
which he asks.” And the poor old man sat down upon 
the ground and wept. 

“Perhaps we can help you,” said a voice beside 
him, and he saw, through his tears, a group of fairies. 

“But I have found for him all the flowers that 
grow,” said the old gardener. “Unless you can tell 
me where to go to find a new kind, I am lost.” 

“You have pansies,” said the fairy, “but only in 
white. Why not have them in colors?” 

“But where will I get them?” asked the old man. 

“Leave that to us,” the fairy replied. “Dry your 
eyes and go into your house and sleep, and in the 
morning look where the white pansies grow.” 

That night, when everything was still, the fairies 
hurried through the garden to the bed of white pansies. 

“We must be careful not to color all of them,” said 
the leader, “for the white pansy is very pretty; but 
I am sure the master of this garden will be satisfied 


THE PANSIES’ DRESSES 87 

when he sees the beautiful colors we put on the 
others.” 

Then each fairy began her work on a pansy. Some 
were colored a rich yellow with dashes of black, others 
were given a deep purple, while others were colored 
in three shades, and some were left with white cen- 
ters and tinted on the outer edge with soft colors of 
violet. 

The next morning the old gardener went to the 
pansy-bed, and his eyes popped out with surprise and 
admiration. He danced and he sang in his wild de- 
light at the beautiful sight, and ran toward the 
house, making such a noise that his master jumped out 
of bed and ran to the door to meet him. 

“My master!” he cried, “I have found the new 
flower. Come quickly and behold it!” 

His master followed him with all speed possible, 
and when he beheld the beautiful sight he embraced 
the old man and told him he should live in comfort 
the rest of his life, for he was satisfied with this new 
flower and felt sure that there was nothing more 
beautiful to be found. 

7 



INQUISITIVE KATIE 


NCE upon a time there was a little girl named 



V_y Katie, who was so inquisitive that she worried 
her mother very much. If a bundle was brought 
into the house she was uneasy until she saw what was 
in it, and she looked in all the drawers, and in the 
corners of all the closets. 

“You will look in the wrong place, some day,” her 
mother told her, “and something will catch you by 
the nose.” But this did not stop Katie from looking 
and listening to everything that was said. 

One day she was walking along the road when she 
saw a queer-looking old woman. “I wonder who she 
is,” said Katie, “and where she is going.” 

The old woman went into the woods, and Katie 
followed her. She stopped before a big rock, and 
Katie saw her strike it three times with her cane, and 
heard her say: 


INQUISITIVE KATIE 89 

“ Very le, very li, very lo, very lum, 

Open to me and my crooked thumb.’ 1 ’ 

And the rock parted in the middle and the old 
woman went in. 

“Now I wonder what is inside that rock,” thought 
Katie, so she hid herself behind a bush and waited. 
After a while the old woman came out and went away. 

Katie hurried to the rock and struck it three times, 
and said : 

“ Very le, very li, very lo, very lum, 

Open to me and my crooked thumb.” 

The rock opened and Katie went in. She could 
see only cobwebs, and she hurried along a path which 
she could see by the light of a lantern that hung near 
the entrance. The path led to a room and a rat ran 
toward her as she entered. 

“Who are you, and how did you get in?” he asked. 

“I asked the rock to let me in,” answered Katie. 

“The old witch will take your head off,” said the 
rat. “You better go back.” 

“ I want to see what is in here,” said Katie, looking 
around. 

“You better not poke into things,” said the rat. 
“The old witch will take your head off.” 

But Katie went into the closet and opened a jar. 
“This is good cake,” she said, as she ate a piece. 
“ Did the old witch make it?” 


90 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


4 ‘Oh, you will catch it!” said the rat. “The old 
witch will take your head off.” 

“Why do you keep saying that? She cannot take 
my head off, and it sounds so silly.” 

“Can’t she?” said the rat. “Well, you wait and 
see. The old witch can do anything with her crooked 
thumb. She has taken off my head many times. Do 
you see that shelf?” he said, pointing to a high shelf 
on one side of the room. “My head has stood there 
many times, and yours will if you do not stop look- 
ing into things.” But Katie laughed at the rat, and 
kept on looking. 

Sheopened another jar. “ Oh, my !” she said, “ what 
nice jam!” And she ate some. 

“You’ll open the wrong jar if you keep on,” said 
the rat. “You’d better come away. The old witch 
will take my head off for letting you in.” 

But Katie was still inquisitive. She saw a number 
of jars on a high shelf that she had not looked into. 
So she climbed up to them. 

“Don’t you open that big jar,” said the rat, run- 
ning up to the jar and sitting on the cover. But Katie 
pushed him off and opened it, and up jumped a long loaf 
of bread and fastened itself on the end of Katie’s nose. 

“There! You see what has happened to you,” said 
the rat. “You are the most inquisitive girl I have 
ever met.” 

Katie tried to pull the bread from her nose, but it 
would not move. 


INQUISITIVE KATIE 


9i 


“Oh dear!” said the rat. “I wish you would not 
disturb things,” for Katie was still looking. “You 
will get into more trouble,” he said, “if you do not 
stop.” 

But Katie had found a jar of nice-looking berries. 
She put her hand in, and instantly it became as large 
as a ham. Katie jumped down, much frightened, for 
her hand was so heavy it pulled her over to one side. 

“Well, you are a nice-looking object,” said the rat. 
“You wait till the old witch sees you, and she will 
take your head off, and then you will not be so 
inquisitive.” 

Just then they heard some one coming along the 
passage, and the rat ran into a comer and sat there, 
trembling. Katie ran behind the door, while the 
witch stood in the middle of the room, looking at her 
crooked thumb. 

“ By the way you point, my crooked thumb, 

Behind that door I’ll find some one.” 

As she said this, she walked over to the door and 
pulled out poor Katie. “So,” she said, “you have 
been looking into my jars, and you opened the jumping 
loaf and the swelling bean. You are a very inquisi- 
tive girl, and now I’ll take your head off.” And be- 
fore Katie could say a word, she pointed her crooked 
thumb at her, and off flew her head and perched itself 
on the shelf of which the rat had told her. 


92 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 


“Come, you lazy little rat,” called the old witch, 
and the rat came slowly out of his corner. “Why did 
you let her in?” she asked him. But before he could 
answer her, she pointed her thumb at him, and off 
flew the rat’s head, and sat beside Katie’s. 

Katie looked down from her high seat, and there 
stood her body with the huge hand, and she won- 
dered whether her head would ever join it again. 
The old witch sat down and took out her knitting, 
and began singing to herself: 

“ Crooked thumb, come tell to me 
What her punishment shall be — 

To wear a loaf hung to her nose, 

Or shall I make one eye to close?” 

“Oh dear!” thought Katie, “isn’t this punishment 
enough, I wonder? Please, Madam Witch,” she said, 
“will you not put my head on my shoulders again?” 
But the witch did not answer. She called Katie’s 
body to her, and took the big hand in hers, and 
smoothed it to its natural size. 

“You seem to be a nice little body,” said the old 
witch. “It is your head that was wrong,” and she 
patted Katie’s shoulder. 

“Oh dear!” thought Katie, “is she going to put a 
new head on me?” 

“Madam Witch,” she said, again, “please put my 
old head back. I never will be so inquisitive again. 


INQUISITIVE KATIE 


93 


And will you please take this loaf off my nose? My 
neck aches, it is so heavy.” 

“I think your body deserves a new head,” said the 
witch, “but I’ll try you once more.” And she took 
from a drawer a gold box with a key in the lock, and 
set it on the table beside her. Then she pointed her 
thumb at Katie’s head, and off flew the loaf. “Now 
you can come to your body,” she said, pointing with 
the thumb again. And, snap ! w^ent the head on the 
shoulders. Katie felt of her neck to make sure it was 
fastened firmly. Then she looked for the witch, but 
she was not in sight. The rat had his head again and 
was running around the room. 

Just then Katie saw the gold box and stepped 
toward it. “Look out!” said the rat. “The old 
witch will take your head off,” and Katie drew back 
and put her hands behind her. When the old witch 
came in she told Katie she could go home, and to 
take the box with her, but not to open it. 

“You are to keep it as a reminder of your fault,” 
said the old witch. 

Katie took the box home and put it on her bureau. 
She was tempted many times to turn the key, but 
each time she resisted the temptation, and after a 
while she forgot all about it. 

One day she happened to think of the witch and looked 
for the box. It was gone ! And Katie knew by that 
that the old witch thought her cured of her inquisi- 
tiveness and that her head was as good as her body. 



THE FISHERMAN AND THE FISH 

A FISHERMAN was fishing from his boat one 
day when he felt a heavy tug at his line, and, 
pulling it in, he found on the end of it a large, 
silver-looking fish. 

“You must put me back into the sea at once,” 
said the fish. “You must not keep me away from my 
scholars.” 

“Your scholars,” repeated the fisherman. “Pray, 
who are you?” 

“I am the schoolmaster of the fish, and if you do 
not put me back into the water at once, you will 
have a poor catch.” 

“What have you to do with that?” asked the 
fisherman. 

“Everything,” the fish replied. “I teach them 
how to grow fat, and when they are old enough, how 
to tell the best bait, and as there are very few old 



THE FISHERMAN AND THE FISH 


95 


fish in the sea, you will be very sorry if you do not 
put me back.” 

“How did you happen to be caught?” asked the 
fisherman. “You should be wise enough to keep 
away from hooks.” 

“Your bait was so tempting that I nibbled too 
deep while I was showing it to the young fish as an 
example of fine bait.” 

“This sounds to me like a fish story,” said the 
fisherman. 

“It is,” the fish replied, with an injured look, 
“but not the kind to which you refer. I am telling 
the truth and you will regret it if you keep me.” 

“You ought to be able to tell me where to find 
plenty of fish and where is the best place to cast my 
lines,” said the fisherman. 

“On the opposite side of the bay,” replied the fish, 
“and you must fish after dark.” 

But the fisherman was still skeptical. “If you are 
so wise, why can’t you take me to the bottom of the 
ocean and let me see this school you have told me 
about. You are a remarkably fine fish to lose, and 
I wish to make sure I am to get something in return 
if I let you go.” 

“Put me in the water,” said the fish, “and follow 
me, and I will show you my school and scholars.” 

The fisherman threw the fish into the water and 
then jumped in himself. When he reached the bottom 
pf the ocean he looked for the schoolmaster fish, 


96 TOLD BY THE SANDMAN 

but he was not in sight, so he sat on a rock and 
waited. 

“I wonder if I was foolish to let him go?” thought 
the fisherman, but just then he saw the schoolmaster 
swimming toward him with a great many smaller 
fish with him, and they were bringing with them a 
quantity of seaweed. 

“You are sitting on my desk,” said the school- 
master fish; “you will have to move.” 

The fisherman got up, and as he did so all the fish 
swam toward him and dragged him to the bottom of 
the ocean and bound him with the seaweed, so that 
he could not move his hands or feet. 

“This,” said the schoolmaster, “is a fisherman. 
Take a good look at him,” and the little fish swam 
all over him, peeping into his face and making him 
feel very uncomfortable with their fins. 

“What are you going to do with me?” asked 
the fisherman. “You deceived me, and I trusted 
you.” 

“You have deceived many of us,” the schoolmaster 
fish replied. “You throw nice-looking bait into the 
water and hide the hook, but you do not call that 
wrong. Why should not we have the same privilege 
when we catch you ? I am going to leave you here as 
an example for the fish to look at, for we do not catch 
a fisherman every day.” And he swam away, taking 
all the little fish with him. 

The fisherman lay there wondering how he could 


THE FISHERMAN AND THE FISH 


97 

escape, when a swordfish swam up and looked at 
him. “What has happened to you?” he asked. 

The fisherman told him how the big fish had tricked 
him and asked the swordfish to cut the bands that 
held him a prisoner. “I only catch small fish,” he 
explained to the swordfish, “and never shall bother 
you.” 

“I really ought not to let you escape,” the sword- 
fish replied, “for the schoolmaster is a very wise fish 
and ought to be encouraged, but I will let you go this 
time, and if you ever trouble a swordfish I will find 
some way to get you to the bottom of the ocean again, 
and the next time you will find that my sword can 
be used for other things than cutting seaweed.” 

As soon as the fisherman found himself free he 
swam to the surface and there was his boat. It was 
dark, and as he had no fish to carry home, he thought 
of what the schoolmaster fish had told him, to fish 
after dark on the opposite side of the bay, so he 
rowed his boat Over to the other side and cast his line, 
but not a bite did he get, and he was tired and 
hungry. 

“That fish was too wise for me,” he said, drawing 
in his line. “Next time I will remember that a fish 
on the hook is better than a sea full of fish uncaught.” 


THE END 









































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